We have often heard the proverb ‘seeing is believing’, and we also learn more from what we see. The same goes for children as well. If you just tell them, they might not remember, but if you show them, they will. Like we use interactive videos for showing and explaining concepts, there are several image resources which can aid in learning like flash cards, Pictionary and others.
Similarly, logos can also be a helpful resource in learning, especially reading for young kids. You might have been your child identifying logos of brands they are familiar with, early on. You might have seen them getting excited when they see the M of MacDonald's without even reading the full brand name or how they can easily recognize the brand symbols of their favourite toys.
In a short summary from Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene, published 2009, he explains “that the brain has specific visual recognition areas where faces and objects are recognized by young children prior to learning to read.
He also states about the pictorial stage as the child’s attempts to read words (including their meaning) by their shape, letter patterns, letter shapes, colours, curvature, etc., using the face/object recognition area of the brain.”
According to the Frith’s psychological model of reading acquisition, there are 3 definite phases:
Logographic stage
Phonological stage
Orthographic stage
Let us understand about each stage and how logos can play an important role.
Logographic stage
As mentioned earlier by Dehaene, a child recognizes the logo rather than reading it. They start relating to logos of favourite shops, restaurants, toy brands, or place they visit like an amusement park etc.
Phonological stage
In this stage, a child learns to identify the smaller units within words such as isolated letters and syllables, etc. This is when they relate to sounds within speech and the child becomes aware of phonemes. They recognize each letter has a sound.
Orthographic stage
In this stage, their reading becomes fluent. Reading time is no longer dependent on the length of words, rather it is related to the frequency in which the words are encountered.
How to use logos for learning?
Start collecting the logos of kid’s favourite logos – You can take coloured printouts of logos and keep them with their toys so that they are in front of their eyes.
Play Memory game with logos – Show them the logo and ask them the name. You can also ask What's the first sound of the logo?
Play match the logos- You can also make it interesting by making a grid for them to match the first sound of multiple logos. You can also take B&W printouts of logos and ask them to match coloured and B&W logos.
Identifying letters- Take a printout of letters of the logo alone and help your child to identify the letters. Show them how the same letter is written in different types of patterns and see if they can identify.
Have fun with logos- You can also ask them to draw logos while you name the brand. For older kids, you can give them a letter and see if they can remember two or three brands where they are used.
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